Officials overseeing the Rincon Valley Fire Protection District voted Tuesday to ask Santa Rosa to consider taking over Rincon Valley's firefighting services.
The unanimous vote to support the proposal by Rincon Valley firefighters stalls a rival proposal by board members to consolidate the Rincon Valley and Windsor fire districts.
Central Fire Chief Doug Williams, who oversees both Rincon Valley and Windsor firefighters, said he will write a letter to Santa Rosa fire officials "for a determination of what may or may not work."
"It's a preliminary step in what could be a long process," Williams said.
Santa Rosa Mayor Scott Bartley said he welcomed the request but cautioned that the city, which currently lacks a chief financial officer, doesn't have the staff to quickly analyze such a proposal.
"It's just not even on our radar right now," Bartley said Tuesday night.
The cost is one of the major issues that Santa Rosa and Rincon Valley would have to negotiate before a contract between the two agencies is signed.
"With a contract, they'd get most of our budget, 99 percent of it," said Darrel Mead, a Rincon Valley board member who favors an agreement with Santa Rosa.
"That's nearly $5 million for work they're already doing," Mead said, referring to the extensive firefighting services Santa Rosa provides to much of Rincon Valley's 125-square-mile jurisdiction.
Rincon Valley firefighters prefer a Santa Rosa partnership, citing their close working relationship with the larger agency and too many differences with Windsor's agency. The deal would also lead to higher pay levels for Rincon Valley firefighters.
A dueling proposal to merge the Rincon Valley and Windsor fire districts suffered a second blow this week when Windsor firefighters formally came out against the proposal.
"It is our stance at this time not to support any consolidation ... until Rincon's relationship with Santa Rosa is determined," Windsor firefighters union president Jason Jones said in a letter given to board members Monday.
Windsor firefighters now believe the timing is wrong for consolidation with Rincon Valley, Jones said. In addition, efforts to blend the two departments in the last two years have exposed "many difficulties and differences" involving budgets, staffing and the agencies' direction, he said.
Windsor firefighters suggested the Windsor district instead look to consolidate with a different agency, closer in size, budget and staffing. Jones' letter didn't offer any suggestions on which fire district would be a better fit.
"We want to see that question with Santa Rosa get answered first. There's not much point going down the consolidation road with someone who could potentially not be a player anymore," Jones said after the meeting.
The Windsor and Rincon Valley boards, which hold joint meetings, were set Tuesday night to consider consolidation. But at the last minute they withdrew the topic from the agenda, leaving only a vote by the Rincon Valley board on the proposal to explore a contract with Santa Rosa.
John Hamann, president of Rincon's board and the Central Fire board, favors consolidation with Windsor. After the vote Hamann said he still planned to research steps required for consolidation while the district waits for Santa Rosa's response.
"I'm still going to be looking at other alternatives at the same time. I don't want to lose time," he said.
Tuesday's meeting drew an unusually large crowd of about 45 people, mainly firefighters from the three agencies but also about a dozen district residents. Several of the residents live in Rincon Valley's district and said they were glad with the decision to approach Santa Rosa.
"I don't think we have any other choice," said Tom Graham, who lives in rural hills northeast of Santa Rosa. He said his rural area relies almost completely on Santa Rosa for firefighting and feared changes to the service if Rincon and Windsor consolidated.
"My feeling is we have to have the Santa Rosa situation taken care of," Graham said.
Staff Writer Kevin McCallum contributed to this story.
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